Getting rid of ticks from your cat: our advice and solutions

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Posted on December 16 2018

Like the flea, the tick is a bug to avoid on your cat. These unwanted visitors can cause mayhem in your home, including transmitting certain diseases more or less dangerous to your pet. It should be protected. How to avoid them? How to fight them? What to do in case of appearance? We answer all these questions.

The piroplasmosis of the cat is not really known. However, this disease can eventually occur after your cat has been in direct contact with a tick. This is also the case for feline ehrlichiosis and feline anaplasmosis , or feline mycoplasmosis . All these diseases remain, fortunately, rare. However, a cat with weakened immune defenses is more likely to develop them. Especially with global warming , ticks are more and more numerous. They are therefore more likely to come into contact with your cat.

How does your cat catch ticks?

Ticks are often present in the period from March to August or September . In fact, during the middle of the year, your cat (and even you) is exposed. The tick is caught by going into the garden , rolling in the grass , placing itself under a tree (ticks cling to the leaves). They manage to reach the coat of the cat, and thus his skin, and begin their work.

What does the tick do?

The tick feeds on the blood of its hosts . The hemoglobin concentration of red blood cells then decreases, and your cat is slightly weaker. It is spicy and feeding that the tick (not in all cases) can transmit some diseases more or less serious.

How to remove a tick?

As in humans, you will use a tick hook , available in pharmacies. The latter allows not only to remove the tick, but also and especially its part anchored in the skin. Indeed, attempting to remove with bare hands or with tweezers, you risk leaving the tick's head in the skin. Do not yank , but unscrew , as if removing a screw. Then, it is necessary to disinfect the area .

However, you should never put alcohol before removing the tick from its location. Do not remove the tick with a pair of tweezers , otherwise you will create an inflammation or abscess.

Before we get there, the best is prevention.

Anticipate ticks

As with fleas, it is important to treat your cat against ticks upstream . This will greatly reduce, if not avoid, that such misadventure does not happen to him. You can, at first, hang a tick collar around your cat's neck. This collar also works against fleas, with less efficiency. The disadvantage is that the tail or inner thighs are not protected.

You can also use a spot-on anti-tick pipette to place behind your cat's neck. They often have a beneficial action for several weeks. This remains, to this day, the best way to prevent the appearance of ticks. In any case, you should contact your veterinarian to choose the best option.

In summary

Fighting a tick is not an easy task. Already, because it is necessary to have the right tool, then the way of doing well. Indeed, removing a tick in a cat requires patience and rigor, under penalty of leaving the head in the skin and create a potential abscess. The best is to anticipate and prevent their appearance, which is usually between March and August.

The tick is a bug that transmits certain diseases. It should therefore be effectively controlled against it upstream, by means of an anti-tick collar or a pipette.